Do Your Political Views Affect Patient Counseling?

More Republican physicians cautioned patients about the mental health risks of abortion; more Democratic physicians urged gun removal from home.

A study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that physicians' political beliefs can affect how they management patients. The study, by Eitan D. Hersh, PhD, and Matthew N. Goldenberg, MD, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, surveyed primary care doctors in 29 states to ascertain how they would handle different types of patient health concerns, such as marijuana use, abortion, and firearms.

Republican and Democratic physicians held similar views on general issues such as obesity, depression, and alcohol abuse, but expressed differences with respect to hot political topics. For example, Republican physicians were more likely than Democratic physicians to caution patients about the mental health risks of abortion, but Democratic physicians were more likely to urge patients not to keep guns in the home.

Renal & Urology News invites its nephrologist and urologist readers to answer the following poll question: